JAn....I never said Metregons reflection off curved panel was better than the Paragon. The 375 takes a down turn at 9k... The 376 is a little bit better though. I keep my Paragon around for its good cabinet design but sonicly it.s not that great. The 075 is dated (15k)
Thanks guys, a good read.
Ken
I tried a lot of things to reach satisfying performance of my paragon. Now I reached a level that nearly satisfies me. I agree to most of Rafael's recommendations as I tried them out.Originally Posted by Rafael
I still think paragon is a fantastic speaker-system with an extraordinary performance - you may like it or not. Always again I'm impressed by its dynamics and even stressless reproduction - if adjusted correctly.
Not optimized by EQ's it may strain your ears and let you think about selling it for a good price. Indeed I thought about it sometimes and I'm happy I never did.
After trying different types of transistor pre- and poweramps, tubes, speaker cables etc. I found out that there are mainly two things that helped me fully accept and love the speaker.
I first tried different "power"-amps in combination with paragon - Mark Levinson 333, Lexicon LX 7, BAT VK 1000, Burmester 956, Brinkmann Monos etc. all of them were too powerful for the speaker. I got some older amps Crown D 45, D 60 and run them with paragon. I must admit that was really much better performance as with all those pretty expensive "power-houses". I tried different tubes and they worked very well, must say I prefer transistors because of easier handling and integrating into racks. In the end I connected paragon with Audio Research SP 11 and classic crown amps. So far I am much more satisfied than before.
Rafael recommended dbx driverack to me which I tried intensively. Running paragon with active X-over and "small amps" was another step in "optimizing" the speaker. EQ'ing and room measurement brought most effects. After listening some time I found sound performance was massive and impressing but I missed in the end the warmth and timbre that made JBL and paragon famous. By using digital dbx driverack 260 that certainly offers you loads of adjustments you receive that special "cold and clean digital sound" that is technically optimized but missing the "analogue feeling".
After all I will try again with a really high-quality analogue PEQ and forget about digital components, I'm sure paragon will love it and give performance that will satisfy me most. I had not the chance running a Massenburg PEQ, but I'm trying.
Some times ago I listened to a - rebuilt - paragon, forum member PARAGON told about. Performance was fine, the dealer did not invest much and used "low-fi" amps that proves paragon does'nt need high power. Unfortunately he prevented maximum performance quality by using Behringer EQ's. Keep you informed about my experience with analogue EQ's.
My conclusion:
I run my paragon with high-quality preamp, low power-amps and highest-quality equalizer. By integrating a really fine EQ (recommendations welcome) I can run the speaker by using built in x-overs and forget about activating.
regards nrwjbl
JBL Paragon
JBL 4435
They have been recommended before, but my favorite analog EQ is still the White 4400. They are really transparent. I have hated digital from the start but now use the DEQX which I couldn't be happier with sonically... it is a bit of a pain to set up and use as you must use a computer to make most of the initial setups.
I've never tried one, but reading that who's who list of electronics that you have tried, you might try a Cello Palette preamp or better yet the Audio Palette dedicated EQ.
Your Paragon is really beautiful, I am skeptical that I could ever consider one as part of my primary system, but I'd love to have a piece of musical furniture that was that beautiful.
Widget
Hi all,
thanks for the nice reading. As I wrote in a former thread, I tried the dbx driverack series and I was quite happy with this device. It is absolutely necessary to feed the driveracks with the highest possible input level and to attenuate the level at the power amps. To make adjustments easy, a nice device with a 8-way pot is now made by SPL, called volume 8. With the driveracks you can easily change nearly all parameters and cure some faults of the original speaker. I must confess that I spend much more time measuring and changing parameters than listening to music. The problem with the digital gear is that you always want to “improve” and change some settings. In the end, when eq´ed, time delay adjusted and with the proper x/o´s some of the warm and relaxed sound of the speaker has gone and I must confess it sounded a bit like a B&W 801- this means not a fault but some of the magic has gone. My ideas may change but at the time I´m sure the best way is to leave the speaker original and to make some equalising with a good parametric device. The idea is to control some faults like JBL did with their EQ cards on the energizers but to make exact correction depending on the room. When equalized the right way there´s no comparison with an unequalized mode. A word on parametrics: I found out that some cheap items sound really disappointing and you will not reach a satisfying result if you use such a device. A good parametric is sonically “invisible” and just does its job without adding a colouration. Since a parametric EQ is a really complex and difficult thing, please buy a really pro item. I´ve made good experiences with the Klark PEQ and the massenburg 8200. Look at the professional mastering studios and the lots of records which were mastered using this parametrics.
Thanks and a good time,
Rafael
My Paragon, serial 179, is equipped with LE15's. I am driving it with a Dynakit Stereo 70 ( 35 watts/channel) and to my ear it sounds very good indeed. By the way, in June of 2005 I posted a note in the Product General Info. section ( page 38.) with a copy of a letter from G.L.Augspurger of JBL. In it he states the LE15 replaced the 150 because it added a little more emphasis in the bass and it had slightly less distortion at very high power levels.
Curiously, your Paragon predates mine (#278) and should have been 150-4C equipped.
Were the LE15's already installed when you got it?
Also, do you have the N400 or LX5?
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